Field of the Invention and Related Art Statement
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for supplementing a developing agent such as a toner for use in an image forming machine such as electrophotographic machine and printing machine, and more particularly to a combination of a developing agent supplementing container for containing a developing agent to be supplied to a hopper of a developing device provided in an image forming machine such as electrophotographic machine and printing machine and a mechanism for fixing and locking the developing agent container onto the hopper
In an image forming apparatus using a two-component developing agent for use in the electrophotographic machine or printing machine, it is necessary to supplement a toner when an amount of the residual toner in the image forming machine is reduced below a predetermined amount. To this end, a developing device of the image forming machine usually comprises a toner hopper, and the toner contained in the toner supplementing container is supplied into the toner hopper. In this manner the toner contained in the toner supplementing container can be supplied into the developing device via the toner hopper.
In a known toner supplementing container comprises a toner bottle having an opening formed in a cap portion, a sealing member for sealing the opening of the toner bottle and a cap which is screwed onto the cap portion of the toner bottle. When the toner is to be supplemented, the cap and seal member are removed from the toner bottle and the toner is supplied into the toner hopper by tilting the toner bottle.
In the electrophotographic machine and printing machine of low or middle speed type, the toner consumption is low, so that an amount of the toner to be supplemented into the toner hopper is relatively small, so that the toner bottle has a small capacity. Therefore, the toner use can be easily supplemented into the toner hopper by grasping the toner bottle.
However, in the machine having a high printing speed, a large amount of toner has to be supplemented. For instance, it is sometimes necessary to supplement the toner more than 1.5 liters at one time. When such a large amount of the toner has to be supplemented, the toner bottle is large and heavy, so that it is quite difficult to supplement the toner correctly into the toner hopper, and the toner is liable to be spread beyond toner hopper.
In order to mitigate the above mentioned drawback it has been proposed to provide a removal shutter plate at the opening of the toner bottle. After the toner bottle has been set on the toner hopper, the shutter plate is removed from the opening to supply the toner into the toner hopper. However, in this case if the toner bottle is removed from the toner hopper before all the toner contained in the toner bottle has been supplied into the toner hopper, the remaining toner might be spread in the surrounding. It is apparent that such a spread of the toner is based on mishandling of the user, but in practice, such a mishandling is liable to occur so easily and so often. Therefore, it is necessary to provide any means for preventing such a spread of toner during the supplement of the toner into the toner hopper.